We have a lot of surprises in store on thisTasmania and a rigorous publishing schedule is in place. There’ll be something new every weekday from now on. See you there. The Editors

Wooden Boat Festival a big success

Australia’s rich maritime culture was celebrated at the seventh Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart recently. Since 1994, the biennial event in and around Hobart’s docks has celebrated the unique character and appeal of craft constructed from timber, the world’s traditional and time-honoured boat-building material. With its superb native specialty timbers such as Huon and King Billy pine, Tasmania is the ideal location to showcase the craft and art of wooden boat design and construction. This festival showcased a record number of vessels with more than 500 boats ranging from dinghies to tall ships. End-to-end they would form a 4.5km flotilla!

Historic vessel to return to Tasmania

The owner of a historic Tasmanian sailing boat says it is returning to the state. A tourist operator from New South Wales, Alan Draper, found out the boat he bought years ago is in fact a Tasmanian Ketch called the Lenna.

Half century for Beatle killers

Bands come and bands go — and a few keep on keeping on. The Kravats have been entertaining Tasmanians for 50 years, a longer career than the grandads of rock, the Rolling Stones. In the early days they supported legendary Australian and international stars in Hobart, including Col Joye, Conway Twitty, Lloyd Price and Johnny O’Keefe.

Letter from Scamander

Bob and Virginia Dickason, readers and friends who run a small store and the post office in the fire-ravaged community at Scamander finally managed to get online last night:

We’re fine. The power and the mobile phone and radio and TV relay was up on a hill where the fire started and has been off since Monday, about 5pm, until this afternoon so life has been somewhat different, and, as one of the locals said “We’ll all smell the same!”

Antarctica 2007 calendars

Just four months old and already weighing 140kg, this Southern elephant seal, takes it easy on Macquarie Island while posing for Iain Field, a contributor to Antarctica 2007: Images of a Frozen Land — the popular calendar produced in Tasmania.

Fragile coastline under threat

Ralphs Bay, a sweeping inlet south-east of Hobart, is a rich tidal soup that sustains abundant migratory and endemic birds, and provides a timeless marine haven for shellfish, seahorses, the critically endangered Spotted Handfish, and other denizens of the shallows. Its unique place in Tasmania’s ecology is now under threat. Sydney-based Walker Corporation proposes to build Tasmania’s first ‘Gold Coast style’ canal housing estate — with 500 homes and a marina on the footprint of the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area.

Tassie’s weather confuses all

There’s an old joke about Tasmania: ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes’. How true. In recent weeks our weather has done it all. We’ve gone from heatwaves and roaring bushfires [see below] to deadly frosts [which wiped out half the fruit crops in southern Tasmania] to widespread snow yesterday [October 27] and overnight. Keep an eye on our webcam focussed on Mt Wellington day and night for updates.

.

A Tassie vote needed

Since our launch nearly three years ago, Stuart Gibson’s stunning surf portolios have been among the most viewed features on Leatherwood Online. The young photographer’s dedication to his vocation is now beginning to pay off, and he can do with a little help.

Cornerstone of history

By PATSY HOLLIS | Slicing like an arrowhead where Forest Road splits left from Goulburn Street in West Hobart, Pendragon Hall is outwardly a church, with mind-blowing leaded windows, a steeple and tall lancet-shaped heavy wooden doors. Inside it has been adapted for private living, though still retaining charming ecclesiastical detail. This 150-year-old landmark is now on the market again. Read more here …

Spring Equinox show time

Leatherwood Online’s webcam feed [courtesy of Rose Bay High School] captured some typical Spring Equinox weather on the morning of September 23. In less than four hours Hobart and Mt Wellington saw gales, snow, rain, sleet and bright sunshine, but not necessarily in that order. Enjoy the volatile show here.

Getting ready for 2007

Tasmanian photographer and publisher Rob Blakers continues his celebration of Tasmanian wilderness with the release of his 2007 desk diary and calendars. Photographers Dennis Harding and Grant Dixon [whose sea kayaker, Furneaux Islands, Bass Strait is shown above] have also contributed. Explore more in our Book Review section.

Syndicate

Stanton Bed and Breakfast
The magnificent convict-built country manor, Stanton, was built in 1817, and is situated on one of Tasmania's first land grant sites — 16 acres of pasture and orchards at Magra, in the heart of the historical and beautiful Derwent Valley.

Red Tag Trout Tours
Roger Butler leads this one-man Tasmanian guiding operation which caters to flyfishers, from all over the world, who share a common goal: getting a wild brown trout to hand.